Bad Reels from the DCP

Da Boss temporarily interrupted work on the end of SATUR-19 (called “Time Waits for No One” for promotional purposes when it screens at Normal’s on October 11) to prepare a DCP for the third segment of the movie. We had locked and sent this off to several festivals back in the beginning of June, and I guess some of them want it. Da Boss and I looked at what we had on the timeline and if anything had gotten moved around: some, just a few titles, but not much. Actually, we both had forgotten how much we’d improved it in spots, all the points in the old bounce where we thought it sagged. BINGO FOR BOTH OF US! We were feeling very good. So instead of making the DCP file right away, we took a break.

And we waited…

And waited…

Waited…

•••

“Monica, it’s such a short thing, just under six minutes, how long could a render take? Even if it’s max quality. Even if it’s at a higher resolution than I shot it. Try exporting it at 12K and see what happens, I’m just curious.” I showed my spur-claw and he shut up, going back to yet another Eddie Murphy film and Ginger Ale (“Bold,” as the can says. “It’s non-alcoholic,” as Da Boss says. “It just has more ginger in it.”) I have no axe to grind, I’m no darling, I’m just trying to get my work done. I adjusted all of the clips and title cards that had slid out of place, checked the music to see if it was in sync with the image, made an H.264 bounce of the film for the festival for potential use in their trailer, checked that, thought it looked fine, sent it away, and then I started the ProRes file. It didn’t that long, 25 minutes for a six-minute short. A good render.

And then I checked the file.

WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THE COLORS?!?!??!?!?! THEY’RE WRONG!

I took seven Klonopin and steeled myself for a long night in front of the computer. I pecked and pecked and eventually stooped to Googling the problem. “Why are colors wrong in ProRes 422 HQ export.” No question mark—I do not have the time for flashy punctuation. The colors were completely fucked up on half a dozen key shots; white had turned to yellow, and a clean stretch of 20 seconds was rendered solid red. Near solid red. It was a disaster. Da Boss said he could’ve lived with the yellow in the first shot—even though the entire effect of the shot is that it’s a blown-out all-white image of a street at night that cuts to the positive (black) image just as the song’s second chorus hits. The yellow was spilling, but it looked messy and unintentional, and not in the way that we on SATUR-19 tend to prefer.

Da Boss said he could’ve lived with all of this because the rest of the movie, the shots that were rendered correctly, were on the whole improved. It wasn’t the movie we’d been watching, but it wasn’t entirely different: certain shots were enhanced, details came out that we’d never seen before. The yellow made certain things, like street lamps, particularly beautiful. But we didn’t have enough time to fix it, there were exhibitors waiting and press kits to be written. We couldn’t have it both ways: we fixed the shots, but the rest of the movie went back to the way it was—pretty good, but Da Boss was still stewing. “I shouldn’t have wasted time… we could’ve fired this earlier… it’s my fault, Monica… I’m sorry.”

—Follow Monica Quibbits on Twitter: @MonicaQuibbits